A research team reported on the effectiveness of the UMass iCons Program, an interdisciplinary certificate in real-world problem-solving for undergraduates in science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and business majors. The article – published in the Journal of College Science Teaching – was co-authored by Martina Nieswandt, the associate vice chancellor for research and engagement and a professor in the College of Education at UMass Amherst, and by Stephanie Purington, a former Ph.D. student at UMass Amherst and now a lecturer in the education department at Marist College.
“Employers tell us that recent college grads struggle with complex problem solving and innovation, dealing with ambiguity, and communicating to broad audiences. Our research aims to find out if programs like UMass iCons are up to the task of filling these important gaps,” said Nieswandt.
“iCons courses are designed to be unscripted, allowing students to determine the problems they’ll study in a given course, for the sake of building their motivation and innovation skills,” said Purington. “This is a promising idea, but research is needed to find out if the idea is being executed properly.”
The research focused on iCons 1, iCons 2 Biomedicine/Biosystems, and iCons 2 Renewable Energy courses during the Spring 2015 and 2016 semesters. These courses were typically taken by first and second-year UMass Amherst students majoring in STEM. The researchers used surveys, class observations, and interviews to determine if the classroom experiences aligned with professors’ intentions for student-driven learning, and whether these experiences met the needs of students.
“For all three iCons courses we studied, we found the same answer – Yes – iCons faculty met their targets by providing helpful guidance to students without spoon-feeding knowledge, and iCons students felt supported and sensed growth in their skills because of the student-centered environment,” Purington and Nieswandt stressed. “These are important findings for other institutions who may want to adopt the student-centered approach being developed in iCons.”
This research is being expanded upon by the UMass Center for Student Success Research, led by Ryan Wells and Ezekiel Kimball, with additional surveys and interviews to study the remaining iCons courses. This additional research is funded by the Mahoney Family Sponsorship, a gift announced in 2019.
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